THERE ARE SOME PEOPLE WE DO NOT WANT ON OUR ISLANDS!
In the January edition of The Friendly Bay Islander we featured a story about the upgrade of the Macleay Island jetty shed.
It was given a significant upgrade by the Macleay Island Progress Association.
And a great job they did, too.
Not just a paint job, but a new concept for the display of island notices, new welcoming signs as you walk off the ferry, and a brilliant painting of a turtle by island artist Darren Goleby - a great way to welcome island visitors!
To the side, new gardens beds were constructed from treated timber and plants were installed, along with a magnificent sculpture fashioned out of island hardwood timber.
The finished job looked magnificent; for a few days anyway.
That was when some miserable, low-life creep thought that they wanted the plants and the sculpture for themselves.
The garden was stripped of many of the plants and the sculpture stolen overnight between 3pm on January 6 and 3pm on January 7, according to police.
This wasn’t the first occasion of stealing plants from a public place on Macleay Island.
Just prior to Christmas, Redland City Council constructed new parking and pathways in front of the Macleay Island library that is attached to the Progress Hall on the island.
New gardens were established in the refurbishment. They lasted just one day.
Someone rocked up overnight, and stole those plants as well.
Over on Russell Island, an island painter was given the task of painting the interior of an island rental house, to get it ready for a new tenant.
Unfortunately, the home was previously occupied by a tenant who was a dealer in the drug Ice, and it had been used to process the drug.
The stench, according to our painter friend, was vile.
“I dry retched, it was so bad,” he said.
The good news on this front that just a few days ago, a massive police drug raid netted a major drug ring operating on our islands. Six arrests were made, thanks to the public being observant and reporting to Crime Stoppers.
We need people like these on our islands, like a hole in the head!
To be so mean and miserable to deface and steal from a public effort by a hard-working community group, is about as low as you can go.
Surely, new plants popping up in an island garden and ‘hey presto’ a sculpture, would be a sure sign that the property occupier is pretty stupid.
Throw in other instances of drug labs, dangerous characters, high traffic visitation, regular domestic violence, and you have a cluster of activities we would like to see eradicated from our islands.
We know it won’t go away entirely, but there is something we can do about it!
Firstly, we would like to see the State Government provide more police resources to the islands. Both Macleay and Russell Islands need up to four police permanently stationed on each island.
Island residents can also play their part.
If you see plants ’spring up’ in a local property, or some suspicious activity going on, REPORT IT!
That is what Crime Stoppers is for.
If you are a good, concerned island resident, you can fulfil an important role in the community by keeping your eyes open and being observant in your street.
The best thing you can do is to note the address and to inform police or ring Crime Stoppers.
If you know the name of the Real Estate agency that is responsible for the property if a rental home is involved, tell them too, and ask them to rent their properties out more responsibly.
You can ring Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
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